Material or article handling – Load carried along a horizontal linear path – Having gripper means
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-06
2001-04-17
Cherry, Johnny D. (Department: 3652)
Material or article handling
Load carried along a horizontal linear path
Having gripper means
C294S099100, C294S119300
Reexamination Certificate
active
06217275
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a pickup apparatus and, more particularly, to a pickup apparatus which selectively picks up and pulls out any thin plate member individually from a number of thin plate members accommodated in a number of respective sections of a tray.
Conventionally, chip resistors, etc. are manufactured in such a manner that a large-size insulated board with a surface electrode and a resistor formed each in unit regions is divided into long bar-shaped board members along breaking grooves pre-formed in the board. The bar-shaped board members are coated with a paste for forming a side electrode. A large number of the bar-shaped board members are placed side by side in a baking tray and they are then baked therein. Thereafter, it is determined whether any of the bar-shaped board members have a defect and if so, they are pulled out from the tray for disposal, while the bar-shaped board members without defects are fed to a dividing device and divided into chip-shaped boards.
Recently, bar-shaped board members with defects are singled out and removed from a baking tray prior to the step of forming a side electrode thereon, in order to make the steps of manufacturing boards more efficient.
The baking tray is divided into a number of small sections, each having e.g. about 2 mm in width, and the bar-shaped board members are inserted individually into the small sections. As a space of each of the sections is too small to insert a finger of the hand therein in order to pick up the bar-shaped board member placed therein, it is difficult to pick up the bar-shaped board member with a defect and pull it out from the section of the tray. Although it is also possible to use tweezers for picking up and pulling out the bar-shaped board member with a defect from the section of the baking tray, this manual work is apparently inefficient.
Therefore, the demand for automating the work of picking up and pulling out the bar-shaped board members with defects from the sections of the baking tray has been growing rapidly in the field at electronic parts plants, etc. However, in the existing circumstances, the work for picking up and pulling out the bar-shaped board members with defects is still done manually.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has the object to provide a pickup apparatus that can solve the disadvantages and difficulty prevailing in the conventional technology as described above.
The present invention has another object to provide a pickup apparatus that is so adapted as to selectively pick up and pull out an objective thin plate member individually from a large number of thin plate members disposed in a baking tray.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a pickup apparatus that can efficiently pick up and pull out a thin plate member with a defect individually from a large number of thin plate members disposed side by side in a narrowly spaced relationship in a baking tray.
In order to achieve the objects as described above, the present invention provides a pickup apparatus so adapted as to selectively pick up and pull out an objective thin plate member individually from a number of the thin plate members placed side by side in a tray, and which comprises a pair of pincer members biased in a closing direction and an expandable bag member interposed between the pair of the pincer members.
The pickup apparatus according to the present invention may be configured such that the pincer members are opened by pouring an operating medium such as, e.g., gases or liquid, etc., into the bag member interposed between the pair of the pincer members. The operating medium poured into the bag member is discharged therefrom to allow the pair of the pincer members to close to clamp the thin plate member and pull it from the tray.
In an alternative configuration of the pickup apparatus according to the present invention, a pair of the pincer members may be allowed to close to clamp the thin plate member individually by feeding the operating medium to the bag member interposed between the pair of the pincer members. In this configuration, the pair of the pincer members are opened by discharging the operating medium from the bag member or failing to feed it thereto. In other words, the pickup apparatus in this alternative configuration may be operated to pick up the thin plate member in the manner opposite to the pickup apparatus in the other configuration as described immediately above.
In a preferred embodiment, the bag member comprises a silicone tube with one end closed and the other end open connected to and communicating with a hose, e.g., an air hose. The pickup apparatus can pick up the thin plate member without fail simply by opening and closing the pincer members so that it can perform the automation of picking up and pulling out the thin plate member from the tray expeditiously and working efficiency can be improved considerably.
In a preferred embodiment, the present invention provides the pickup apparatus wherein the thin plate member comprises a bar-shaped board member divided from a ceramic board for forming, e.g., chip resistors, etc. The pickup apparatus according to the present invention can expeditiously perform the work of picking up the bar-shaped board member with a defect from a large number of the bar-shaped board members disposed side by side in a narrowly spaced arrangement in the tray, thereby improving the steps of manufacturing chip resistors.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention become apparent in the course of the following description with reference to the accompanying drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4834232 (1989-05-01), Freermann
patent: 2440256 (1976-03-01), None
patent: 1338917 (1963-08-01), None
patent: 2653415 (1991-04-01), None
patent: 64-317990 (1989-12-01), None
patent: 1400878 (1988-06-01), None
Cherry Johnny D.
Jordan and Hamburg LLP
Rohm & Co., Ltd.
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